Activity 7: Can the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Be Justified?

Activity 7: Instructions World War II

Activity 7: Can the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be justified?

Purpose To examine historic evidence to draw conclusions and reach informed opinions.

Curriculum Focus History - Understand the diverse experiences and ideas, beliefs and attitudes of men, women and children in past societies, identify and explain change and continuity within and across periods of history identify, select and use a range of historical sources, evaluate the sources used in order to reach reasoned conclusions, present and organise accounts and explanations about the past that are coherent, structured and substantiated, use chronological conventions and historical vocabulary.

Communication – Oracy, reading, writing.

ICT - Structure, refine and communicate information, produce a presentation.

Thinking Skills - Identify the problem and set the questions to resolve it, suggest a range of options as to where and how to find relevant information and ideas, ask probing questions, build on existing skills, knowledge and understanding, evaluate options, use prior knowledge to explain links between cause and effect and justify inferences/ predictions, identify and assess bias and reliability, consider others’ views to inform opinions and decisions, determine success criteria and give some justification for choice.

P4C – Feeling empathy.

Materials Included in this pack: Activity sheet 7a – Student introduction Activity sheet 7b – Hiroshima before and after the bombing Activity sheet 7c – Detonations of the atomic bombs Activity sheet 7d – The effects of the atomic bombs (Warning: Contains graphic images of survivors of the bombings) Activity sheet 7e – Enola Gay and Bockscar Activity sheet 7f – Statistics Activity sheet 7g – Eyewitness accounts

You will also need: Internet access, rope

Groupings Whole class, four or five

©Imaginative Minds Ltd. Activity 7: Instructions World War II

Procedure Before sharing any of the activity sheets with the pupils, there are two activities that would lend themselves to P4C. They are Agree/Disagree line and Decision Alley. Only one activity is undertaken not both. It is an excellent way to provoke thought and activate prior knowledge. The group discussion and presentation then allows pupils to make links between their prior knowledge and new knowledge.

Agree / disagree line Write up the statement, ‘Can the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be justified?’ There is a huge debate surrounding this cataclysmic event. Some believe it is justified while others do not. Before looking at any of the activity sheets, tell the pupils they will have to decide whether it was justified or not. Lay the rope across the floor and ask the pupils who agree with the statement to stand on one side of the rope and those who don’t to stand on the other side of the rope. Those who cannot decide stand on the rope, but they must come to a decision before the end of the session. The groups discuss their choices with each other and share their reasons. They need to listen to each other and be prepared to change their minds.

Decision Alley The class is divided in half and stand in two lines opposite each other, creating an alley. Pupils take it in turns to walk through the alley. The pupils on one side of the alley give their reasons why the bombings can be justified, the pupils on the other side give their argument against. After each pupil has walked through the alley, they come to a decision as to which side of the alley they should join. The pupils sit together at the front of the class and respond to questions from the other pupils. • What have you decided? Can the bombings be justified? • Why do you think that? • How would lives change if the atomic bombs had not been dropped? Finally, take a vote.

Discuss activity sheet 7a with pupils. Present them with the other activity sheets. Explain that the pupils will look at the evidence they have been given and also have access to the internet if they wish to look for any other evidence.

In their groups, the pupils will examine all the evidence and discuss its impact. They need to keep in mind the overriding question of whether or not the dropping of the Atomic Bombs was justified. After group discussion, the pupils can present their arguments as a

©Imaginative Minds Ltd. Activity 7: Instructions World War II

group or individuals.

They could support their presentation with a PowerPoint, but the PowerPoint is only to support spoken arguments and not to be the presentation itself. If the pupils choose to use PowerPoint, the pupils will use graphics pictures and sound.

Ask the pupils to set clear success criteria for their presentations e.g. the reason for presenting the information to the audience, the key messages, issues in producing effective presentations.

On completion of the presentation, pupils will determine the success of their presentation by applying their chosen evaluation criteria. Pupils will need to have a copy of their criteria and then take each criterion in turn and apply it to the project. They will need to decide: whether they have met the requirements of the criterion how well each criterion is met what areas need to be improved how each area for development could be improved

Pupils will present their presentation in an appropriate manner to the rest of the class. At the end of the presentation, the rest of the class should be asked if there are any questions they want to ask and evaluate the work of the presenting group. Have they informed the rest of the class about the value and importance of their views?

Teacher’s Note This activity will take a number of sessions. Pupils will analyse and evaluate information and then present it in an effective manner. All pupils will make contributions and will take part in the presentation giving reluctant speakers the opportunity to contribute a small section and to have support from their group in all stages of producing their presentation.

©Imaginative Minds Ltd. Activity sheet 7a World War II Can the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be justified?

The photographs above show celebrations taking place for victory in Europe. The war in Europe ended in May 1945, however the war with Japan was still raging and many women were still waiting for their husbands, sons and brothers to return.

©Imaginative Minds Ltd. Activity sheet 7a World War II

Scientists in America had been working on a new type of weapon for many years – the atomic bomb. In March 1945, they carried out the first successful test in the desert in Mexico at Trinity Site. The effect the bomb had was tremendous. Scientists had invented the most powerful weapon on earth, with the power for total destruction. The Americans had two more of these bombs, each with the capability to destroy a city. What no one knew was what the effects of the bombs, both long and short term, would be on people.

To bring the war in the Pacific to a speedy conclusion, the decision was taken to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on 6 th August 1945. Within seconds, 75,000 people had been killed or fatally injured. The Americans asked the Japanese to surrender, they refused. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing a further 42,000 people.

Six days later, the Japanese surrendered. The Japanese surrender

The bombings

When ‘Little Boy’ was dropped on Hiroshima by the B29 bomber Enola Gay, the initial heat blast was 900 times hotter than the surface of the sun. The winds created travelled at 500 mph and everything in a two-mile radius was flattened. It has been reported that the mushroom cloud rose to 17,000 metres.

Within thirty minutes of the blinding white flash came the black rain, infecting the areaThe and bombthe people devastated it fell upon. Hiroshim a and Nagasaki

In the bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans guess 117,000 people were killed. The Japanese dispute this figure and say a quarter of a million.

The bombs had a devastating effect on the environment. Many plants and animals were killed or died months later from radiation. Radioactive sands clogged wells for drinking water. Water sources were polluted by radioactive waste. Agriculture was damaged.

The two atomic bombs vaporised around 117,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those who survived are called "hibakusha"-- meaning people exposed to the bomb -- and there are a number of them still living today. Why did they do it?

©Imaginative Minds Ltd. Activity sheet 7a World War II

The reason given by President Truman for dropping the Atomic Bombs was that they were dropped to end the war in Japan quickly, saving thousands of American lives. The invasion of Okinawa, April to June 1945, had claimed over 50,000 casualties for the Allies. The USA believed that Japan would never surrender and Japan had 5,000 aircraft and 5 million soldiers prepared to fight to the death.

However, it is often claimed that there were other reasons that led Truman to his decision:

The Japanese were on the verge of surrender in August 1945 anyway – many historians believe that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was revenge for Pearl Harbour and Japanese war crimes against Allied prisoners of war. Truman dropped the atomic bombs because he wanted to end the war and keep the Soviets out of the war in the Pacific. By dropping the bombs, he could prevent the USSR from entering the war in the Pacific and claiming the lands promised them at Yalta. There is no doubt that Stalin saw the dropping of the bombs as directed more at Russia than Japan. ‘They are killing the Japanese and intimidating us,’ he told Molotov, his minister for Foreign Affairs. The bomb was dropped to impress the Soviets, and persuade them to relax their grip on Eastern Europe. Some even believe Truman sanctioned the bombings to test the weapons on live human beings to see what effect they would have

Your task

Look at Activity sheets 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f and 7g.

Worksheet 7b shows photographs of Hiroshima taken before the Atomic Bomb was dropped and some taken after.

Activity sheet 7c shows photographs of the Atomic Bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki detonating and some of the effects of that detonation.

Activity sheet 7d contains photographs of the effects that the Atomic Bombs had on the population of the cities. (Warning: graphic content)

Activity sheet 7e shows photographs of the planes and crew who dropped the Atomic Bombs on the cities.

Activity sheet 7f gives some statistics mainly of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Activity sheet 7g describes two eye witness accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima.

In your groups discuss the photographic and written evidence and decide if you think the bombing of Hiroshima was justified.

Produce a speech explaining your feelings on the dropping of the Atomic bomb. You must explain if you think the US was right to drop the bomb and explain your answer.

©Imaginative Minds Ltd. Activity sheet 7b World War II Hiroshima before the bomb

Activity sheet 7b World War II

Hiroshima after the bomb

Activity sheet 7b World War II

Beneath the centre of the explosion, the temperature was hot enough to melt concrete and steel.

Activity sheet 7c World War II

Detonation of the A tomic Bombs

Hiroshima Nagasaki

First, there was a glaring pinkish/white light in the sky, which burned out people’s eyes. This was followed by a mushroom like cloud like the ones shown above. Beneath the centre of the explosion, the temperature was 3,980°C (7,200 °F) – hot enough to melt concrete and steel. Within seconds, thousands of people were killed or fatally injured. Then black rain fell. Plants and animals were killed or died later on from radiation. Radioactive sands clogged wells used for drinking wate r. Water sources were polluted by radioactive waste.

Within the first four months following the bombings of both cities, the acute effects of the bombs killed between 90,000 and 166,000 in Hiroshima and 60,000 and 80,000 in Nagasaki.

Many clocks in Hiroshima were found to have stopped at 8.15am – the time of the bombing.

Activity sheet 7d World War II The Effects of the Atomic Bombs Thousands were killed and injured when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thousands of children were orphaned.

In the days that followed, many people suffered and died of radiation poisoning.

They began bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth.

Skin peeled away from the people who were caught near the epicentre.

Thousands of people died of cancer in the years after Hiroshima.

In both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many children were stillborn and others born with deformities.

The bomb blast caused “shadows” of the people to be left behind. In a few seconds after an atomic bomb goes off, the area around it is bathed in intense heat rays streaming out from the detonation point. The temperatures of objects hit by the rays can climb to 1,000 degrees or more. This causes some substances to burn while cold. Dirty concrete can be "bleached" white. If any object blocks the heat rays for those few seconds, a portion of the surface is spared and does not change colour leaving a "shadow." The people who left these “shadows” were killed when vaporised by the heat and shock that arrived a few seconds after the blinding light. The shadows are a unique occurrence from a nuclear explosion and remain after many years. They remind us of a horrific moment in history and serve as a reminder of the value of human life.

Below: The pilot and crew of the Enola Gay, the plane which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. The Enola Gay was named after the pilot, Paul Tibbet’s mother.

Above right: “Little Boy”, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima

Above Left: Bocksc ar (or Bock’s Car) , the plane that dropped the bomb “Fat Man” on Nagasaki

Left: Bockscar and crew © Imaginative Minds Ltd. Activity sheet 7f World War II

Statistics 6th August 1945. A day unlike many others. A day that would change the world. A day that would lead to the end of World War II and introduce mankind to the Atomic age. On this day, a single plane – the B29 Bomber, the Enola Gay – dropped a single bomb “Little Boy”, destroying the city beneath. The city was Hiroshima and like the Atomic Shadows which leave a unique and permanent nuclear reminder, so will the name Hiroshima. Few people understood what an atomic bomb was or the effect it would have upon the population of the city. Any battle fought in the war paled in comparison to the devastation of what took place in Hiroshima. The human cost of the bombs was terrible. The world had never witnessed a weapon like it and would never see it used in combat again. The effects were horrific and devastating and are still being felt. The bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT , the largest ever used in the history of warfare. In the seconds after detonation, intense heat rays streamed out from the detonation point. Temperatures of objects hit by the rays climbed up to 1,000 degrees or more . Objects blocking these heat rays caused atomic shadows. The initial heat blast was 900 times hotter than the sun . 75,000 people were killed instantly – many were vaporised underneath the bomb blast and those still alive were in agony with severe burns. There was a glaring pink light which burned out people’s eyes. Anyone within a kilometre of the explosion became a pile of smoking charcoal within seconds. By 1950, 200,000 people had died as a result of the bomb. Between 1950 and 1980, a further 97,000 people died from cancers associated with the radiation caused by "Little Boy" The blast wave also destroyed 78,000 buildings .

The emotional and permanent atomic shadows scarring the landscape of Hiroshima were created by the force of the atomic blast. The shadows are a unique occurrence caused by a nuclear explosion and remain on the landscape for years. They stand as a reminder of a horrific moment in history and serve as a reminder of the value of human life.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represent the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.

Eyewitness accounts

Those who survived the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are called ‘hibakusha’ – meaning people exposed to the bomb – and there are a number of them still living today.

Futaba Kitayama, then 33 years of age, was 1.7 kilometres from the centre of the explosion.

“Someone shouted, "A parachute is coming down." I responded by turning in the direction she pointed. Just at that moment, the sky I was facing flashed. I do not know how to describe that light. I wondered if a fire had been set in my eyes. I don’t remember which came first – the flash of light or the sound of an explosion. The next moment I was knocked down flat on the ground. Immediately things started falling down around my head and shoulders. I couldn’t see anything, it seemed pitch dark. Soon I noticed that the air smelled terrible. Then I was shocked by the feeling that the skin of my face had come off. Then, the hands and arms too. Starting from the elbow to my fingertips, all the skin off my right hand came off and hung down grotesquely. The skin of my left hand, all my five fingers, also came off.

I ran like mad toward to the bridge, jumping over the piles of debris. What I saw under the bridge was shocking. Hundreds of people were squirming in the stream. I could not tell if they were men or women. They looked all alike. Their faces were swollen and grey, their hair was standing up. Groaning people were rushing to the river. My burns starting paining me. It was a kind of pain different form an ordinary burn which might be unbearable. Mine was a dull pain that was coming somewhere far apart from my body. I imagined that my face also must be in a dreadful shape. By my side, many high school students were squirming in agony. They were crying insanely "mother, mother". They were so severely burned and blood-stained that one could scarcely dare to look at them. I could do nothing for them but watch them die one by one, seeking their mothers in vain.

As far as I could see, everywhere was in flames. Steadily, my face became stiffer. I put my hands carefully on my cheeks and felt my face. It seemed to have swollen to twice its size. I kept walking. I saw on the street many victims being carried away by stretcher. Carts and trucks heavily loaded with corpses and wounded who looked like beasts, came and passed me. On both sides of the street, many people were wandering about like sleepwalkers."

(The New Scientist 25 th August 1977 article called ‘An Eyewitness Remembers’)

Michihiko Hachiya was a Japanese medical practitioner who lived through that day and survived the Hiroshima bombing in 1945.

Dr Hachiya was Director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital and lived near the hospital, about a mile from the explosion's centre. His diary was published in 1955, under the name of Hiroshima Diary.

He described the effects of the atomic bomb blast from its first flash in the early morning as he rested from his night shift as an air warden at the hospital. The force

© Imaginative Minds Ltd. Activity sheet 7g World War II of the blast stripped all the clothes from his body, but he and his wife survived. However they both received serious burns to their bodies and had to journey to hospital Michihiko worked at.

Michihiko Hachiya wrote:

“The hour was early, the morning still warm and beautiful. Shimmering leaves, reflecting sunlight from a cloudless sky, made a pleasant contrast with shadows in my garden as I gazed absently through wide-flung doors opening to the south. Clad in drawers and undershirt, I was sprawled on the living room floor exhausted because I had just spent a sleepless night on duty as an air raid warden in my hospital.

Suddenly, a strong flash of light startled me - and then another. So well does one recall little things that I remember vividly how a stone lantern in the garden became brilliantly lit and I debated whether this light was caused by a magnesium flare or sparks from a passing trolley.

Garden shadows disappeared. The view where a moment before had been so bright and sunny was now dark and hazy. Through swirling dust I could barely discern a wooden column that had supported one comer of my house. It was leaning crazily and the roof sagged dangerously.

Moving instinctively, I tried to escape, but rubble and fallen timbers barred the way. By picking my way cautiously I managed to reach the roka [an outside hallway]and stepped down into my garden. A profound weakness overcame me, so I stopped to regain my strength. To my surprise I discovered that I was completely naked How odd! Where were my drawers and undershirt?

What had happened?

All over the right side of my body I was cut and bleeding. A large splinter was protruding from a mangled wound in my thigh, and something warm trickled into my mouth. My check was torn, I discovered as I felt it gingerly, with the lower lip laid wide open. Embedded in my neck was a sizable fragment of glass which I matter-of- factly dislodged, and with the detachment of one stunned and shocked I studied it and my blood-stained hand.

Where was my wife?

Suddenly thoroughly alarmed, I began to yell for her: 'Yaeko-san! Yaeko-san! Where are you?' Blood began to spurt. Had my carotid artery been cut? Would I bleed to death? Frightened and irrational, I called out again 'It's a five-hundred-ton bomb! Yaeko-san, where are you? A five- hundred-ton bomb has fallen!'

Yaeko-san, pale and frightened, her clothes torn and blood stained, emerged from the ruins of our house holding her elbow. Seeing her, I was reassured. My own panic assuaged, I tried to reassure her.

'We'll be all right,' I exclaimed. 'Only let's get out of here as fast as we can.'

She nodded, and I motioned for her to follow me."

Dr. Hachiya and his wife made their way to the street. The homes around them were collapsing. He could see that:

“Hundreds of people were trying to escape to the hills past our house. The sight of them was almost unbearable. Their faces and hands were burnt and swollen and great sheets of skin had peeled away from their tissues to hang down like rags on a scarecrow. They moved like a line of ants. All through the night they went past our house, but this morning they stopped. I found them lying so thick on both sides of the road that it was impossible to pass without stepping on them.”

Dr. Hachiya and his wife realised that they must move on and begin their journey to the hospital a few hundred yards away.

"We started out, but after twenty or thirty steps I had to stop. My breath became short, my heart pounded, and my legs gave way under me. An overpowering thirst seized me and I begged Yaeko-san to find me some water. But there was no water to be found. After a little, my strength somewhat returned and we were able to go on. I was still naked, and although I did not feel the least bit of shame, I was disturbed to realize that modesty had deserted me. On rounding a corner we came upon a soldier standing idly in the street. He had a towel draped across his shoulder, and I asked if he would give it to me to cover my nakedness. The soldier surrendered the towel quite willingly but said not a word. A little later I lost the towel, and Yaeko-san took off her apron and tied it around my loins.

Our progress towards the hospital was interminably slow, until finally, my legs, stiff from drying blood, refused to carry me farther. The strength, even the will, to go on deserted me, so I told my wife, who was almost as badly hurt as I, to go on alone.

This she objected to, but there was no choice. She had to go ahead and try to find someone to come back for me.

Yaeko-san looked into my face for a moment, and then, without saying a word, turned away and began running towards the hospital. Once, she looked back and waved and in a moment she was swallowed up in the gloom. It was quite dark now, and with my wife gone, a feeling of dreadful loneliness overcame me.

I must have gone out of my head lying there in the road because the next thing I recall was discovering that the clot on my thigh had been dislodged and blood was again spurting from the wound.

I pressed my hand to the bleeding area and after a while the bleeding stopped and I felt better.

Could I go on?

I tried. It was all a nightmare - my wounds, the darkness, the road ahead. My movements were ever so slow, only my mind was running at top speed.

In time I came to an open space where the houses had been removed to make a fire lane. Through the dim light I could make out ahead of me the hazy outlines of the Communications Bureau's big concrete building, and beyond it the hospital. My spirits rose because I knew that now someone would find me and if I should die, at least my body would be found. I paused to rest. Gradually things around me came into focus. There were the shadowy forms of people, some of whom looked like walking ghosts. Others moved as though in pain, like scarecrows, their arms held out from their bodies with forearms and hands dangling. These people puzzled me until I suddenly realized that they had been burned and were holding their arms out to prevent the painful friction of raw surfaces rubbing together.

A naked woman carrying a naked baby came into view. I averted my gaze. Perhaps they had been in the bath. But then I saw a naked man, and it occurred to me that, like myself, some strange thing had deprived them of their clothes. An old woman lay near me with an expression of suffering on her face; but she made no sound.

Indeed, one thing was common to everyone I saw - complete silence.

All who could were moving in the direction of the hospital. I joined in the dismal parade when my strength was somewhat recovered, and at last reached the gates of the Communications Bureau."

(Hachiya Michihiko, Hiroshima Diary 1955)